I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“If a writer is true to his characters they will give him his plot. Observations must play second fiddle to integrity.”
“If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.”
“If a writer knows everything that is going to happen, then his book is dead before he begins it.”
“If a writer knows what he or she is doing, I'll go along for the ride. If he or she doesn't... well, I'm in my fifties now, and there are a lot of books out there. I don't have time to waste with the poorly written ones.”
Source: On writing: a memoir of the craft
“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. A writer who appreciates the seriousness of writing so little that he is anxious to make people see he is formally educated, cultured or well-bred is merely a popinjay. And this too remember; a serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.”
“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”
“If a writer publishes any thing that attracts notice, and is in itself just, but does not accord with our plan, we must endeavour to win him over, or decry him.”
“If a writer stops observing he is finished. But he does not have to observe consciously nor think how it will be useful. Perhaps that would be true at the beginning. But later everything he sees goes into the great reserve of things he knows or has seen.”
“If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.”
“If a writer stops observing, he is finished.”
Source: Ernest Hemingway: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
“If a writer understands his work as something that originates with him but then, with any luck, gets away from him, then what he needs is someone who can grasp the potential of the piece and lead him to that higher ground.”
“If a writer writes poems and short stories and novels, but nobody ever reads them, is she really a writer?”
“If a writer writes something that he or she has never experienced, I think the reader can sense right away that it is garbage. The only thing that can replace experience, though, is imagination; however it takes experience to grow an imagination.”
“If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.”
“If a young aspirant had a modicum of skill and a busy typewriter she or he would sooner or later get a foothold in one of the magazines and a leaping start on the ladder upward.”
“If a young dog strays up the aisle during church no one says anything, no one does anything, but, none the less, he soon becomes aware that something is wrong. Even so, as the distance between myself and the hearthrug diminished, did I become aware that something was very wrong indeed.”
Source: The memoirs of Ethel Smyth
“If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.”
“If a young girl feels comfortable to pursue her passion, we as a collective will be stronger and more equipped to face the challenges life presents.”
“If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate.”
Source: Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings
“If a young man at the age of twenty-three can write a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder.”
“If a young man gets married, starts a family, and spends the rest of his life working at a soul-destroying job, he is held up as an example of virtue and responsibility. The other type of man, living only for himself, working only for himself, doing first one thing and then another simply because he enjoys it and because he has to keep only himself, sleeping where and when he wants, and facing woman when he meets her, on equal terms and not as one of a million slaves, is rejected by society. The free, unshackled man has no place in its midst.”
Source: The Manipulated Man
“If a young man gets married, and starts a family and spends the rest of his life working at a soul-destroying job, he is held up as an example of virtue and responsibility. The other type of man, living only for himself, working only for himself, doing first one thing and then another simply because he enjoys it and because he has to keep only himself, sleeping where and when he wants, and facing woman when he meets her on equal terms and not as one of a million slaves, is rejected by society. The free, unshackled man has no place in its midst.”
“If a young man is going to get ahead, if he is going to reach the top, he must be all wrapped up in what he is doing. He has to give his job - whatever it is - not only his talent but every bit of his enthusiasm and devotion.”
“If a young person has any idealism at all, it's strongest about the time he finishes college.”
“If a young woman is looking at the landscape of Hollywood, what she sees is almost only challenges.”
“If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn’t hesitate to do so.”
“If a λόγος as ἀπόφανσις is to be true, its Being-true is ἀληθεύειν in the manner of ἀποφαίνεσθαι—of taking entities out of their hiddenness and letting them be seen in their unhiddenness (their uncoveredness).”
Source: Being and Time
“If abandoned rage asks, Who should answer for this?/
Say, the very blood of our lives eats composure up.”
Source: The End of the Alphabet: Poems
“If abandoning animal research means that there are some things we cannot learn, then so be it ... We have no basic right ... not to be harmed by those natural diseases we are heir to.”
“If Abe Lincoln took part in the Republican debates, he would look out of place with his intelligence, compassion and gaping head wound.”
“If abortion is murder then blowjobs are cannibalism.”
Source: Inside The Mind of an Introvert: Comics, Deep Thoughts and Quotable Quotes
“If abortion isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong.”
“If above all things we would taste God, and feel eternal life in ourselves, we must go forth into God with our feeling, above reason; and there we must abide, onefold, empty of ourselves, and free from images, lifted up by love into the simple bareness of our intelligence.”
Source: The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
“If Abraham actually had sacrificed Isaac, would he therefore have been less justified?”
“If absolute perfection is an idle walk from one point to another, which is no walk at all, then there is no existence and no life. If we come from this postulate and premise, the existence and life, as we see it, must be, conditionally speaking, “less perfect.” This less-perfect world (existence) is possible only through creation or recreation (“design”). But this creation is not possible without recreation. There is nothing to start from except the Absolute itself—Being and Nonbeing (Something and Nothing). There is nothing to hope for outside this realm. Nothing can be created from nothing if the Being does not create it. Regardless of how omnipotent it is, the Being cannot create anything except out of itself. Even creation out of itself would not be the real creation but recreation because the created being would still be the same (although modified).”
Source: ABSOLUTE
“If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God??”
“If absolute sovereignty be not necessary in a State, how comes it to be so in a family?”
“If absolute truth belongs to anyone in this world, it certainly does not belong to the man or party that claims to possess it.”
“If Abstract Expression reached for the sublime, Pop turned ordinary imagery into icons. Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol illuminated the transformative power of context and the process of reproduction. Claes Oldenburg's soft ice-cream cones and hamburgers changed sculpture from hard to soft, from stasis to transformation.”
“If Abu Bakr is dead and Umar is Caliph, then we hear and obey.”
“If Abu Nidal is a terrorist, then so is George Washington.”
“If abuses are destroyed, man must destroy them. If slaves are freed, man must free them. If new truths are discovered, man must discover them. If the naked are clothed; if the hungry are fed; if justice is done; if labor is rewarded; if superstition is driven from the mind; if the defenseless are protected, and if the right finally triumphs, all must be the work of man. The grand victories of the future must be won by man, and by man alone.”
“If acceptance is the real definition of moving on, then, forgiveness is the real form of love.”
“If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?”
Source: Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor
“If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions, must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, and every letter and point, seems to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude; and expressed, either in the text, or margin, with the greatest precision”
“If achieving success were easy, more people would do it.”
“If achieving world peace and ending poverty were really genuine concerns to the majority, then they would have happened already by now. So, either people are not aware of their collective power, or their fears overpower their desires. The amount of money spent on the military-industrial complex in one year is more than enough to end hunger in Africa. Every problem on earth today has more than one solution. However, priorities are determined by values.”
Source: Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
“If achieving your potential requires favorable judgment by others, you are much less likely to succeed.”
“If acids win - you lose!”
“If acknowledging that racial misgivings and misunderstandings are still a part of politics and life in America, I plead guilty.”